Ruud van Nistelrooy - New Manager - Official

[Lionator]

8 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

Listen to his post-match interview, he actually knows what he's talking about. What his ceiling is I don't know, but it's night and day compared to Cooper. The tactics and game state changed multiple times during this match, but Ruud responded every time and was proactive to fix structural fauls. Post match he even addressed the high amount of shots against and the lack of keeping the ball in the middle leading us to get out pressed.

 

If he gets backed in January, we stay up.

On the basis that Mads is as good as gone for £50m next summer, there’s no reason not to splash out in January.

[brookfox]

God start, but of luck but that’s 3pts we wouldn’t have got under Cooper and a platform of positivity to build on. Dutch ovened myself when I went to bed in his honour.

[LestaLad]

“Jelle ten Rouwelaar is the new assistant of Ruud van Nistelrooy at Leicester City. After Burnley, Ajax and Manchester United his fourth employer in half a year. As a player he was a bit more home-bound 😄 .”

[Finnegan]

8 hours ago, Wymsey said:

He's the real deal, isn't he.

 

8 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

Listen to his post-match interview, he actually knows what he's talking about. What his ceiling is I don't know, but it's night and day compared to Cooper. The tactics and game state changed multiple times during this match, but Ruud responded every time and was proactive to fix structural fauls. Post match he even addressed the high amount of shots against and the lack of keeping the ball in the middle leading us to get out pressed.

 

If he gets backed in January, we stay up.

 

He definitely came across that way. 

 

The unknown factor will be how well he can explain all of this to the players and instruct them. Plus, what he's like with them as a human being when things get hard. 

 

He definitely, immediately, seems more tactically astute than Cooper (haha) and I'm feeling quietly optimistic that we can turn a corner. 

 

But there's a LOT we don't see that's vital and only time will tell us if he has it. 

 

Edited 4 December 2024 by Finnegan

[Happy Fox]

57 minutes ago, LestaLad said:

“Jelle ten Rouwelaar is the new assistant of Ruud van Nistelrooy at Leicester City. After Burnley, Ajax and Manchester United his fourth employer in half a year. As a player he was a bit more home-bound 😄 .”

 

Goalkeeping coach.

[21st Century Fox]

I know it was one game and I know he didn't have long to train with the team so it's all guess work, but definitely get the sense that Ruud is going to be one of the most pragmatic managers we've had for a long while.

[Spudulike]

I think this demonstrates the fragility of players mindsets. Ruud really hasnt had enough time to change style or play patterns but the team as individuals were clearly lifted and found an extra level. So much of elite level professional sport is played out in the mind.

[LVFox]

Loved how he mentioned both keeping the ball better, but also our ability to hurt teams on the counter attack.

 

There's a purpose behind Ruud, he will no doubt get things wrong, he's a young coach, but there's a real clarity to his message that the players have obviously been craving.

[fazzyfox]

It will be interesting what he does when Winks is fit as he said he sees the deep midfield 2 as the solid protection for the back four and he may prefer "units" in there rather than craft and playmaking. The ideal is a bit of both (from each player), Premier League footballers should be able to pas the ball not treat it as a hot potato, I'm sure Winks is a ball winner too but he may look to get the protection sorted as a priority and match the physicality of the opposition. With the Christmas schedule approaching I wouldn't be surprised to see Hamza alongside Wilf for a game here and there. Still not sure what Skipp's best asset is, some say "Work-rate" but for their wages that should be a given (cough "Soumare"). Winks seems to be that modern day good all rounder CM with a bit of everything but ha he played last night I could se him being out muscled and the game passing him by. The old debate about picking horses for courses or setting the agenda yourself and letting the opposition worry about you and your selection rather than constantly bowing over to countering theirs.   

[foxfan92]

10 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

Listen to his post-match interview, he actually knows what he's talking about. What his ceiling is I don't know, but it's night and day compared to Cooper. The tactics and game state changed multiple times during this match, but Ruud responded every time and was proactive to fix structural fauls. Post match he even addressed the high amount of shots against and the lack of keeping the ball in the middle leading us to get out pressed.

 

If he gets backed in January, we stay up.

Looking forward to your post match analysis. Think we rode our luck a bit, but I wish we'd defended more like this at the weekend.

 

Some good fortune playing against a West Ham team that aren't looking convincing themselves this season.

 

However, even though it was mostly one way traffic West Ham's way, there was something about that ball through to our attackers that looked a lot better than has been of late. We found the space and had more support in attacks. We were quicker, giving West Ham less time to get numbers back. Up until yesterday we seem to run into a wall of defenders every time we attack and things break down. The way we counter attacked last night looked more like the Leicester of old. 

 

Daka's goal felt very much like the kind of goal we got many times in 2015/16 season, pace and composure, with the ball played into a gap at the back.

 

It's very early days, but clear positives at the moment, even if we do need a lot of work to ensure we're not having to defend so much.

[Big Blue Maff]

3 minutes ago, foxfan92 said:

Looking forward to your post match analysis. Think we rode our luck a bit, but I wish we'd defended more like this at the weekend.

 

Some good fortune playing against a West Ham team that aren't looking convincing themselves this season.

 

However, even though it was mostly one way traffic West Ham's way, there was something about that ball through to our attackers that looked a lot better than has been of late. We found the space and had more support in attacks. We were quicker, giving West Ham less time to get numbers back. Up until yesterday we seem to run into a wall of defenders every time we attack and things break down. The way we counter attacked last night looked more like the Leicester of old. 

 

Daka's goal felt very much like the kind of goal we got many times in 2015/16 season, pace and composure, with the ball played into a gap at the back.

 

It's very early days, but clear positives at the moment, even if we do need a lot of work to ensure we're not having to defend so much.

Agree , good assessment of the game. 
 

I know that goal will do Daka’s confidence a boost ( some finish that was ) happy for him and hopefully Rudd can coach him into something more of a scorer , onwards and upwards, early days however a great win. Confidence must remain high, IN RUDD WE TRUST. Don’t you just love Jamie Vardy ?? 
unbelievable 

[kingfox]

As @Bordersfox and @StriderHiryu both said, listening to him last night was night and day compared to Cooper. 
 

Was quite refreshing to hear a manager speak so articulate of what his plans are, he laid out last night’s positives and negative’s perfectly and I thoroughly agreed with the majority of it. 
 

Loved how he especially concentrated on work rate, energy and wanting the players to work their socks off. Simple things like that is what I’ve been craving to see from Leicester City this season, the work rate off the ball last night was excellent in certain areas, El Khannouss and McAteer especially were magnificent, while credit to Daka, apart from one dodgy first touch, I loved what I saw from him last night.

 

As for the negatives he focused on our setup when in possession and ability on the ball, that’s probably the number one thing he’ll work on over the coming weeks, fingers crossed we see improvement throughout December. 
 

Such a refreshing energy from him, and being a lover of Dutch football myself, I love him already 

[Bordersfox]

6 minutes ago, kingfox said:

As @Bordersfox and @StriderHiryu both said, listening to him last night was night and day compared to Cooper. 
 

Was quite refreshing to hear a manager speak so articulate of what his plans are, he laid out last night’s positives and negative’s perfectly and I thoroughly agreed with the majority of it. 
 

Loved how he especially concentrated on work rate, energy and wanting the players to work their socks off. Simple things like that is what I’ve been craving to see from Leicester City this season, the work rate off the ball last night was excellent in certain areas, El Khannouss and McAteer especially were magnificent, while credit to Daka, apart from one dodgy first touch, I loved what I saw from him last night.

 

As for the negatives he focused on our setup when in possession and ability on the ball, that’s probably the number one thing he’ll work on over the coming weeks, fingers crossed we see improvement throughout December. 
 

Such a refreshing energy from him, and being a lover of Dutch football myself, I love him already 

The fact he actually spoke about tactical tweaks made during the game, about styles and patterns of play. 

 

Maybe I am doing Steve a disservice but I just can't really remember him articulating that sort of thing very often post match or at any point.  It was all very vague with Cooper, Ruud seemingly has a much clearer idea of what he wants.   

 

One thing I'm excited to see is how we manage turnovers.  Ruud mentioned post match about directness in those moments.  Potter spoke about exploiting 'big spaces' as well.  That's where I think Bilal can really shine, his awareness and passing into space looks very good.  Such a shame Fatawu is injured. 

[StriderHiryu]

59 minutes ago, foxfan92 said:

Looking forward to your post match analysis. Think we rode our luck a bit, but I wish we'd defended more like this at the weekend.

 

Some good fortune playing against a West Ham team that aren't looking convincing themselves this season.

 

However, even though it was mostly one way traffic West Ham's way, there was something about that ball through to our attackers that looked a lot better than has been of late. We found the space and had more support in attacks. We were quicker, giving West Ham less time to get numbers back. Up until yesterday we seem to run into a wall of defenders every time we attack and things break down. The way we counter attacked last night looked more like the Leicester of old. 

 

Daka's goal felt very much like the kind of goal we got many times in 2015/16 season, pace and composure, with the ball played into a gap at the back.

 

It's very early days, but clear positives at the moment, even if we do need a lot of work to ensure we're not having to defend so much.

 

If I have time, I will try to do this on Blue Tinted Glasses on Thursday night. Despite only having a few training sessions, Ruud made a few tweaks that had a big effect. Essentially he tried to protect both of our fullbacks, which is why he started McAteer and El Khannouss, and this strategy worked.

 

 

We have been defending in a 442 under Mareca and Cooper, but it was notable how much more compact the 442 was last night. This has pros and cons, pros, it makes you more defensively resolute, cons, there's more space for the opposition to pick up the ball aand maintain possession and control. But overall this was a good change to make, which made us a lot more defensively stable. Vestergaard and Coady as a back 2 sounded awful on paper, but both looked good. Justin for once was not ruthlessly exposed as he had been all season long.

 

 

 

^ Kristinansen stepped up at times to support the attack, especially in the first half. El Khannouss really put a shift in defensively to support him on transition and in the defensive phase, and I feel like Ruud started him over Mavididi, because Mavididi hasn't been getting back as quickly / often as he did under Maresca. We stopped doing this in the second half and Ruud moved BEK into the centre and moved McAteer wide to the left. The game was wull of interesting tweaks to the wings, Lopetgui moved Bowen into a false 9, and Wan-Bissaka started as left back but moved to become a right back. For me this was the best VK had been all season long. Biggest differences were that he tried to carry and play the ball down the line as his first instinct rather than trying to turn back and play it centrally, which he stuggled to do and slowed down our attack. That forward progressive pass he played to Daka was sensational, and he looked more like the exciting teenager that impressed in the Champions League.

 

 

 

Finally it was notable that when we attacked on transition, we didn't attack with as many players. Generally it was with 3, and sometimes a late arriving 4, which is different to attacking with 5 last season. Even Maresca this season has switched to attacking with 4, because the brutal nature of the Premier League means that attacking with too many players leaves you too open if you lose it.

 

Overall Ruud made some sensible changes that looked to make the team defensively more stable, but still carry a threat on transition. Even if we ended up losing, he recognised clear faults we saw all season long and tried to fix them. This is in stark contrast to Cooper who after shipping five goals in the cup to Man United, used the same exact tactic to lose 3-0 to them in the league. Night and day difference in the setup and tactical nous on show.

[kingfox]

21 minutes ago, Bordersfox said:

The fact he actually spoke about tactical tweaks made during the game, about styles and patterns of play. 

 

Maybe I am doing Steve a disservice but I just can't really remember him articulating that sort of thing very often post match or at any point.  It was all very vague with Cooper, Ruud seemingly has a much clearer idea of what he wants.   

 

One thing I'm excited to see is how we manage turnovers.  Ruud mentioned post match about directness in those moments.  Potter spoke about exploiting 'big spaces' as well.  That's where I think Bilal can really shine, his awareness and passing into space looks very good.  Such a shame Fatawu is injured. 

He laid out his plans clear as day in his first press conference and even more so last night. 
 

We as fans will be going into games now with an exact idea of how we’re going to play, the main thing about Cooper is we became confused to what he exactly wanted from the team, everything felt a bit muddled. 
 

Last night was clear from the very first minute, and as Strider has demonstrated above, the 3-2-4-1 shape in possession with Kristiansen pushing high especially in the first half, with a 4-4-2 shape when out of possession, it’s exactly what Van Nistelrooy said he was going to do, while as I said above, it makes it far easier for us fans to understand what we are trying to do as a team. 
 

He laid out what needs work, but he laid out things we can exploit, as you mentioned with attacking with directness, he’s already identified the ability we have to counter. Our attacks kept breaking down in the first half, but getting the pace of Mavididi and Daka into the team, especially against tired defences in second halves of games, it could really become something Ruud mainly focuses on going forward. 
 

Of course we need to be more compact defensively, something which he outlined as well after the match. 
 

But last night we saw a manager who articulately has a clear game plan, refreshing to see 

[egg_fried_rice]

2 hours ago, 21st Century Fox said:

I know it was one game and I know he didn't have long to train with the team so it's all guess work, but definitely get the sense that Ruud is going to be one of the most pragmatic managers we've had for a long while.

He mentioned, more than once, the “profiles” of the players in our squad in relation to the various game states we saw last night and how we might look to play in the future.

 

This suggests to me he will look to work our formations and structures around the players we have, rather than bringing a dogmatic single-minded approach, or just picking what he views as our best players as opposed to our best team.

 

Really encouraging signs from RVN last night.

[bovril]

3 hours ago, Spudulike said:

I think this demonstrates the fragility of players mindsets. Ruud really hasnt had enough time to change style or play patterns but the team as individuals were clearly lifted and found an extra level. So much of elite level professional sport is played out in the mind.

I think in any field if you have a manager who comes across as confused or evasive or severely lacking in confidence it's going to effect everyone's morale. This is especially true in team sport which requires a high level of focus, organization and performance in a relatively short burst of time. 

[Corky]

Cannot remember a manager getting the consistent reception in their first game. Chanting his name after every goal etc. 

[bovril]

46 minutes ago, Corky said:

Cannot remember a manager getting the consistent reception in their first game. Chanting his name after every goal etc. 

I like what I've seen so far but honestly he benefits massively from not being Steve Cooper

[MarriedaLeicesterGirl]

2 hours ago, bovril said:

I like what I've seen so far but honestly he benefits massively from not being Steve Cooper

Face it, not being Steve Cooper is a massive benefit!

[HighPeakFox]

1 minute ago, MarriedaLeicesterGirl said:

Face it, not being Steve Cooper is a massive benefit!

This feel like it has the potential to be a reverse Spartacus thread. 

 

I'm not Steve Cooper... 

[Koke]

I'm glad he acknowledged and addressed the dominance and number of chances West Ham created. It's clearly unsustainable. Hopefully he'll rectify. 

[Foxdiamond]

8 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

 

If I have time, I will try to do this on Blue Tinted Glasses on Thursday night. Despite only having a few training sessions, Ruud made a few tweaks that had a big effect. Essentially he tried to protect both of our fullbacks, which is why he started McAteer and El Khannouss, and this strategy worked.

 

 

We have been defending in a 442 under Mareca and Cooper, but it was notable how much more compact the 442 was last night. This has pros and cons, pros, it makes you more defensively resolute, cons, there's more space for the opposition to pick up the ball aand maintain possession and control. But overall this was a good change to make, which made us a lot more defensively stable. Vestergaard and Coady as a back 2 sounded awful on paper, but both looked good. Justin for once was not ruthlessly exposed as he had been all season long.

 

 

 

^ Kristinansen stepped up at times to support the attack, especially in the first half. El Khannouss really put a shift in defensively to support him on transition and in the defensive phase, and I feel like Ruud started him over Mavididi, because Mavididi hasn't been getting back as quickly / often as he did under Maresca. We stopped doing this in the second half and Ruud moved BEK into the centre and moved McAteer wide to the left. The game was wull of interesting tweaks to the wings, Lopetgui moved Bowen into a false 9, and Wan-Bissaka started as left back but moved to become a right back. For me this was the best VK had been all season long. Biggest differences were that he tried to carry and play the ball down the line as his first instinct rather than trying to turn back and play it centrally, which he stuggled to do and slowed down our attack. That forward progressive pass he played to Daka was sensational, and he looked more like the exciting teenager that impressed in the Champions League.

 

 

 

Finally it was notable that when we attacked on transition, we didn't attack with as many players. Generally it was with 3, and sometimes a late arriving 4, which is different to attacking with 5 last season. Even Maresca this season has switched to attacking with 4, because the brutal nature of the Premier League means that attacking with too many players leaves you too open if you lose it.

 

Overall Ruud made some sensible changes that looked to make the team defensively more stable, but still carry a threat on transition. Even if we ended up losing, he recognised clear faults we saw all season long and tried to fix them. This is in stark contrast to Cooper who after shipping five goals in the cup to Man United, used the same exact tactic to lose 3-0 to them in the league. Night and day difference in the setup and tactical nous on show.

Great point about VK trying to play the ball down the line rather than slowing play turning back inside. Not sure why but this particularly noticeable when a left back does it.England suffers from it too. Victor did very well last night. 

[Wasyls Pec Deck]

I slept so badly last night. Not because I got shitfaced, but because I was so buzzing after watching Ruud’s LCFC. 
 

We’re back! Or at least competitive again.

[Tom12345]

I like him from the moment of his first interview. He clearly has a winner’s mentality. His achievements as a player no doubt explains this (also explains his achievements).

 

What I thought he could bring is some Fergie style toughness and discipline, which he seems to have and is already talking about.

 

Plus, what I was hoping he can bring is part of the Man U Fergie style attacking playbook. They used to be so simple and so direct. This is what we immediately saw in the game against West Ham. With Bilal, Bounouette, Kristiansen (second half), Vesty and Soumare, we were trying to go forward when we can with intent and purpose. We were not just hoofing it, but trying to hit it into the right areas for players to run into - that was what Man U did very well back in the day. Yes we were rusty as he only had a few days to work with the team, but look at the result - we created more clear cut chances than I can remember for a long time.

 

Passing out from the back is fine, but to create chances we need to attack with speed and open space. How we failed before was that we try to pass about at the back SO slowly and then when pressed with crappy ball players at the back and Ndidi adding to our own pressure we just end up hoofing it up and losing the ball. Against West Ham, we tried to just hit it up to, but into good areas. Kristiansen for example cut out many of his aimless passes down the line to no one close.

 

Go Rudd.